STATEN ISLAND MYSTERIES in Prince’s Bay

As much as your webmaster has explored Staten Island over the years (I’ve probably spent the most time in Queens, followed by Manhattan, Brooklyn, Staten Island and the Bronx in that order) almost every time I head into a previously unplumbed territory on the island, I stumble on yet another headscratcher. I found two in one day in September 2007, in a nebulous area that belongs to no distinct neighborhood near the Mount Loretto sculptures, and further up Raritan Bay near Prince’s Bay. Both are probably very old and will yield their secrets with difficulty.

The first is what’s shown in the title card, a large, 3-story tower in front of what is a relatively ordinary house on Flower Avenue, west of Butler Boulevard and just south of the island’s main seashore drag, Hylan Boulevard.

It looks as if it was built to look out over the bay, which is just a short distance south of the structure. Could it have been a lighthouse? Prince’s Bay has, or had, a more “official” lighthouse nearby.

Meanwhile at Hylan Boulevard and Bayview Avenue, which must still look pretty much as it did a century ago, there’s a concrete base to what must have been a long-lost statue near an entrance to Lemon Creek Park.

There’s only one form of identification on the object: Latin for “mother of grace” –likely a reference to the Catholic teaching of immaculate conception, in which Jesus’ mother Mary was born free of original sin.

Could the structure – and the missing statue –originally have been part of nearbyMount Loretto?